Chris Barnard is vice president, European Telecommunications and Networking, at IDC. He is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and is responsible for region-wide, enterprise-focused research as well as country-specific telecoms research in the Nordics, Benelux, France, Spain, and Italy.

With a personal research focus on enterprise transformation and the interaction with infrastructure and life-cycle services (consulting/integration, managed services, maintenance), Chris is the author of numerous white papers and trade press articles on professional services, convergence, unified communications, ebusiness, infrastructure, and networking strategies. He is widely quoted in the international technology and business press. In 2010, Chris was named telecoms analyst of the year by the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR). He is frequently asked to speak at international industry conferences, customer events, and road shows.

Chris joined IDC in 2000. He previously worked for three years at Montreal-based software company Essentus as special projects manager and customer support manager (Europe). Before joining this supply chain management vendor, he was employed by Fast Lane, an Oracle consultancy in the Netherlands. Barnard, who holds a master's degree (cum laude) in social sciences from Stellenbosch University, also has six years' experience as a journalist and editor at various publications.

Cisco Partner Summit kicks off in San Francisco on November 1, 2016. We believe it will be one of the most important events for the San Jose company in many years as it executes on "balancing cross premise, SaaS (Cloud), and hybrid" appr ...

Dimension Data Group's former chief executive officer, Brett Dawson, stepped down after 17 years at the helm, making way to Jason Goodall, the previous COO of the company. This move came as a surprise, given that the straight-talking Daw ...

This IDC Flash discusses Cisco's second Partner Summit of the year, held on November 1, 2016, in San Francisco, California. We believe it was a significant event for the networking and services company as Cisco sought to clarify messages ...